US House votes to prevent lifting Iran sanctions

OREANDA-NEWS. September 14, 2015. Republican-controlled US House of Representatives today approved a bill to bar President Barack Obama from suspending sanctions on Iran, a measure that is not expected to be mirrored in the Senate.

The House voted 247-186, largely along party lines, to suspend the president's authority to "waive, suspend, reduce, provide relief from or otherwise limit the application" of Iran sanctions before 21 January 2017. That will be the first full day of the next president's term in office.

The bill is in response to the 14 July accord the US and its P5+1 negotiating partners, the UK, France, Germany, Russia and China reached with Iran that swaps nuclear concessions for oil and petrochemical sanctions relief.

Today's vote is largely seen as a symbolic effort to telegraph Republicans' unhappiness with the Iran nuclear deal since Democrats have enough votes in the Republican-led Senate to block any attempt to pass comparable legislation.

The House, by a vote of 162-269, rejected a second measure, a resolution of approval of the nuclear deal. No Republican voted in favor of the resolution. House speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) called the nuclear deal "far worse than anything I could have imagined."

Yesterday, a group of 42 Democrats and independents in the Senate blocked Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) from proceeding with a vote on a resolution of disapproval of the plan. House Republicans opted to vote on a resolution of approval, in an attempt to highlight the Democrats who are supporting what Republicans deem a politically unpopular agreement.

Under the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, lawmakers have 60 days to take action to reject or approve the agreement. That 60-day window has long been recognized to end on 17 September. Yesterday, the House passed a non-binding resolution asserting that the congressional review period has not begun, because the White House has not produced all documents related to the deal that Republicans have been demanding.

Lawmakers have been insisting the White House turn over UN nuclear watchdog the IAEA's agreements with Iran, but the administration says it does not have those documents to produce.

EU and US sanctions have limited Iran's crude exports to 1.1mn b/d, down from about 2.5mn b/d before they were imposed in 2012. Six countries — China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey — were allowed to keep buying oil from Iran. Iran produced 2.86mn b/d in August, down from 2.88mn b/d in July, making it Opec's fourth-largest oil producer.